


Medicine

by longkissgnite



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Modern AU, Pills, and also finnick is a big loser bitch don’t forget, ans annie letting that get to her head, blood mention (due to hallucinations), brief PTSD episode, but it’s ok nun bad happens, but it’s slightly bordering on it, but not in an addiction way, description of a car crash, description of hallucinations, he does the cooking, just in the way of needing medication, not in a harmful way, pill reliance, they probably both do the cleaning stupid hets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:42:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26664631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/longkissgnite/pseuds/longkissgnite
Summary: A little look in how much Annie needs her medicine, prescribed to help her with hallucinations caused by ptsd.Hint: it’s not as much as she thinks she does.
Relationships: Annie Cresta/Finnick Odair
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8
Collections: Modern THG AU





	Medicine

⠀⠀Annie was waiting in the car, because Finnick had /asked/ her to be waiting in the car. She said she could manage going in, she could manage just /fine/ without him going in with her even, she had countless times before, why was now any different?  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀Well, she supposed she knew why. It was a new pharmacy, in a new part of the city, Finnick wanted to go in first, just get the medication and be out. He wanted to make it easier for her.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀It was just making her more nervous.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀ _She messed up the last pharmacy, there was someone new working and soon enough she was overwhelmed. Asked questions she /knew/ the answer to but couldn’t answer, put on the spot in ways she didn’t know how to handle. Asked /why/ she was on the medication at all.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She told them, she explained. She explained a lot more than she needed to.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”My friend got in a car crash, we got in a car crash, my friend, well he, my friend died, he died.” That was already more than enough, she had /known/ that was more than enough. But she had left getting her medicine until the last day, wanted to prove she didn’t /need/ it and was instead edging on a breakdown.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”He died,” she had repeated, maybe even more than twice, “he lost his head, he died.” Shaking, she remembered shaking. “The seatbelt, it killed him, did you know those could kill you? I didn’t, but it killed him.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀One day without her medicine, less than a day, and she was a shaking nervous wreck.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Sometimes, without this, I see him, or the crash, or sometimes just blood. I need this,” she had tried to reach for the bag holding the pills, but the pharmacist didn’t /let/ her. She needed them.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”I see blood now,” she had said abruptly, cut off /something/ the pharmacist had said but she didn’t hear it. “It’s all over me, I’m sorry, it’s… I need those, it helps, it stops it.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀Except he didn’t just give her the medicine, instead he was reaching for her hand, he could’ve gotten blood on him, he /should’ve/, had it been real. She didn’t know if he did, or she did, she knew he didn’t, but then she didn’t. How could she know?  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀Screaming, she remembers lots of screaming. Was that in the crash or in the pharmacy?_  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Annie?”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She jumped, startled, and looked up and out the half down window.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Hey,” she was quiet, but he didn’t point that out.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀Instead he pointed out simple things, “I’m unlocking it, so it’ll make a sound.” And it did, a soft click, she still jumped. “Are you okay for me to open the door?” she nodded, and still he spoke before he did. “Alright, I’m opening it.” Which, true to his word, he did as he spoke. “I’m getting in now, closing the door,” he did the actions as he spoke them like second nature, because it was by now. “Do you want to put on the seatbelt?” She shook her head, “Okay, I’ll do it, and it’s clicking.” And it did, right on cue.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀This was all routine, the car was treated so carefully. He didn’t start it yet, he never did so suddenly, he always waited for things to settle in. He narrated other things too, but outside of the car narration was only necessary on a bad day.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Are you okay?”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”No,” Annie didn’t look up at him, instead she gently messed with the bracelet on her right wrist. Too much information was inscribed there, in a second a stranger could know so much about her. In a second everyone would know she was crazy if they just paid attention to the red cross on the thing.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Do you know what’s wrong?”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”When do I stop feeling crazy?” She asked, glancing up to meet his eyes now.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”You’re not crazy.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”I /feel/ crazy.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Not everything you feel is real.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Only crazy people feel fake things.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Annie, listen to me, you’re /not/ crazy.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀He sounded frustrated.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”I’m sorry,” she went quiet, looking at the bracelet again. “When do I stop wearing this?”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Whenever you stop taking the medicine, remember, they hand and hand.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀So immediately she felt herself tense, some sort of panic run through her like when there /was/ blood on her, or when she thought there was. She couldn’t stop taking the medicine, she needed it, it kept her from being crazy, it kept her safe.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Annie, honey,” he took her hand, the one without the bracelet. “Annie, it’s okay, you don’t need to stop the medicine.” his other hand guided her face to look at him, and she was thankful. If she looked at her hands much longer she felt like things might slip.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”I need it.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”I know you do, I know, that’s why I got it, and next time you can come in with me, okay? You’re okay,”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She nodded slowly, and he carefully kissed her forehead. A slow moment, she giggled, and he kissed again.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”You can drive now,” she whispered, and now he nodded, beginning to narrate his motions again.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀The keys in the ignition, the keys turning, even the first press of the gas pedal. All of it came easily, she breathed and listened and watched him drive.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She carefully put the medicine away in the cabinet when she got home, not needing to open the new bottle for another week. Finnick made sure they got it early, he made sure everything that went wrong last time wouldn’t happen again. As she thought, it was frustrating that he needed to intervene at all, he shouldn’t have to, she should be able to function fine /alone/. Her needing all the help was just another sign she was crazy.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She kept little tins for all her medicine, now she noted she’d need more she thinks. She kept one for all the medicine she had to take from the current bottle, and she couldn’t add to that with the new bottle but she wanted to have the new one organized too. She huffed, but closed the medicine cabinet.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Finnick,” she spoke quietly, watching him move through the kitchen a few minutes later. “I need another tin, I need to sort these new pills.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She watched him, he paused, she hated it. He paused, he’d think over what he said, it’ll come out too careful because he’s giving her that look like she’s fragile. Like she's something that’ll physically shatter. She supposes she is.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”You don’t need it,” He said carefully, going over to her and taking her hands now. His were dirty, not bad. The texture wasn’t bad. But they were dirty. He was making pizza, of course they were. Coated in flour. At least she caught him before the sauce. “You’ve never needed that before, you don’t need it now.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She shook her head, feeling the same panic rise in her and he held her hands tighter, forcing her to breathe.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”You don’t, Annie.” He says softly, gently, not calculated. “The only time you need to worry about your medicine is when you take it in the morning and when it needs to be refilled. You took it this morning and I got it refilled this afternoon. You don’t need to worry.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”No, no I need to make sure this ones ready, so I don’t forget it, I can’t forget it, I can’t go without it,”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”You could if you wanted to.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”No, I couldn’t, it keeps me from being crazy I need it, you know I need it, I have to have it.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”My love, you don’t need anything to keep you from being crazy because you’re /not/ crazy.” He spoke slowly again, but it wasn’t to calculate, it was to make her listen. “You’re still you, you’ll still be you, you’ve been you, nothing you’ve been on is going to change /you/, it just helps you, and that’s why you’re on it.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”What if it stopped helping me? What if it didn’t matter and I still saw things? Finn wh-“  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Annie,” his voice was firm, not too much so, but enough to stop her. “Annie, please /listen/ to me. You’re okay, you’ll be okay, you need the medicine for now, and that’s also okay.” He paused, probably to make sure she was listening. “You haven’t had an episode in weeks before you did at the store, and that was almost a month ago now. It’s helping, you just have to let it do its job and breathe, my dove.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀She nodded, he kissed her slowly, and she giggled.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”Help me with dinner, stop worrying about things.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”You worry a lot too,” she pointed out playfully, she was sure her voice was tired, but she knew he’d take on the teasing.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”I do,” he agreed, letting go of her hands, “maybe that’s why we’re so good together, hm?”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”I think we’re good together because fate wants us to be.” She said simply, going to a bare spot on the counter and pulling herself up to sit there. She wouldn’t help, she’d watch him cook easily.  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀”I think you’re ridiculous believing in all that,” he laughed, and even harder when he caught her frown. “It’s cute, it’s cute, if you believe in it you know I do too.”  
⠀⠀  
⠀⠀Shockingly, of course, letting herself just laugh with her husband made things feel lighter. Not thinking about pills, or bottles, or any of that, helped. She was okay, just as he said. Now if she was crazy or not was another matter, but at least she was okay right now.


End file.
